


The dead can speak

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 15:39:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8806585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: Victor makes life and Henry tries to hide the beast within.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jolybird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolybird/gifts).



Victor Frankenstein knows that the dead have words; you just have to listen closely, carve them out of dead flesh; sculpt them back into life with heaven’s fire.  
He took dead Brona and made her into the living lovely Lily, and he animated Proteus and Caliban. His children, lovely and lithe under his hands. They left him alone, didn’t they?  
Caliban slew Proteus and Lily abandoned him to do her evil.  
Victor puts the needle into his arm and feels the cold comfort take hold. Caliban would fashion a verse out of the sensations coursing through him, but Victor is no poet, though he has the soul of one.  
Victor can create other beautiful things, carve them into life and make them his own and that is his gift and curse.

*  
“Victor?” asks Henry Jekyll, voice warm and sweet, gaze almost loving in its intention. Victor has come to rely on Henry for support, and friendship in the time they have known each other. There is a kinship there, though Henry is different from Victor in many ways, fellow outcast or not.  
“We will try to create life out of this girl. Her name was Ligeia when she lived,” says Victor, eyes ablaze with fire and life.  
“How did she live?” asks Henry and looks at the corpse under the thin sheet. She looks shapely and young, with auburn locks. It’s as if she’s not dead at all, but for her stillness and pallor.  
“Not well. She died in childbirth. I will give her a new chance at life.”  
“Can you give her life?” asks Henry. “Can the dead walk the earth?”  
“They can. I have done so before,” says Victor as lightning beings to flash. Heaven’s fire.  
Lily left, and the others are gone too. This one won’t leave his side if he has anything to say about it. Unless her path will lead her elsewhere and away from him.  
Heavy lights, and Ligeia will live again.  
Lightning hits her and Victor feels elated.  
Henry marvels at his genius.  
“Life is elusive, old boy “ says Henry.  
“Yes,” says Victor. Henry’s dark eyes flash with excitement.

*  
Lightning gives her life, and Ligeia moves, auburn locks moving as she casts her sheet aside to take trembling steps upon the cold earth. She is naked, but not ashamed of it yet like Eve was in her first time in Eden. Victor quickly hands her a dress, and she puts it on with trembling hands.  
“Live,” says Victor and she looks into his eyes with confusion and hope.  
“I live,” she says, voice clear as a bell and Henry smiles knowingly.  
“She is beautiful,” he says though she can hear him. There is no desire in his eyes, only an appreciation of a beautiful shape, like a piece of art.  
She speaks and Victor learns of her life, and her many losses, both her husband and child died too soon.  
Her memory is hazy, and but can fill in the blanks for her.  
He and his partner in crime can assist her in her new life.

*  
Victor knows that Ligeia will need time to adjust to her new life, and he falls asleep knowing it’s only begun for them. Henry watches over them, a dark urge burning inside him, waiting to be born, a beast in his breast trying to make its way to the surface.  
Ligeia will give her words to him, and guide them both home. Henry now sees her as an independent creature, not just a thing Victor made to demonstrate his genius and defiance of all things normal.

*  
She watches the world again, seeing it painted in intriguing hues. Her loss leads her here, and back to her roots. Ligeia watches her new companions about to create something that she cannot name. Henry is looking for means to tame the demon within him, and Victor is trying to be helpful.  
Ligeia holds a spoon, while Henry watches a brew come together from strange ingredients.  
“Will it help?” asks Victor, having gathered dead leaves at a cemetery to put in the brew.  
“It must,” says Henry. “I cannot go on like this, it’s not good for anyone.”  
“Indeed not,” says Ligeia. “A beast in one’s breast cannot soothe the weary soul.”  
“It will save me,” says Henry and Victor watch his latest child stir the foul-green brew with her dainty finger. Her beauty is not as obvious as Lily’s, and his heart clenches slightly to think of her.  
But he had to let her go; he could not force her to stay anymore though he loved her dearly.  
Henry drinks and Victor and Ligeia hold their breaths as one.  
Nothing changes; Henry remains as placid and lovely as ever.  
“It might take time to perfect it,” says Victor.  
“Yes,” says Henry. “We shall have to try again.”  
“Perhaps you are better as you are,” suggests Ligeia with a smile. Henry doesn’t know if he agrees, but he must live with it, become what he needs in order to make it in this strange world his father was part of, a world that will continue to doubt him no matter what he does.

*  
Henry’s father dies, and he becomes Lord Hyde. The demon within is suddenly calm, and Henry goes to reclaim his birthright. When he returns Victor sits by his window, looking out at the busy world.  
“How did it go?” he asks.  
“They scoffed and called me words, but I am their lord.”  
“Yes.”  
“Did you partake of your drugs old boy?” asks Henry with a concerned tone.  
“Now and again. Less so than before. I need to help Ligieia.”  
“Where is she?”  
“Perfecting a new formula,” says Victor. “Her memory is clear now.”  
Henry smiles. “Do you still need my help?”  
“I never stopped,” says Victor and takes his hand. The future is suddenly very bright for all of them. The dead can speak, and their words can be helpful for the living to hear. No one knows this better than Victor and his creatures and friends. The world will have to listen.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: This chooses to ignore Victor’s actions to try and tame Lily, and instead he set her free. Ligeia gets her name from a character in an Edgar Allan Poe story. That Ligeia rose from the dead and took over another woman’s body as she died. It’s not clear if she was a vampire or evil spirit or simply a ghost. This Ligeia is slightly inspired by her.  
> The ending of the tv-series is not meant to have happened here, let’s say Vanessa lived and Dorian met his fate from the novel. Or Vanessa died but took Dracula with her.


End file.
